Spray-dried sugar mixture and process



Patented Dec. 3, 1940 y SPRAY-DRIED SUGAR. mx'runs AND moosss James F. Walsh. luckahoe, N. Y., assignor to American Maize-Products Company, a corpora.- tion of Maine No Drawing. Application August 31, 1939, Serial No. 292,800

Claims. (Cl. 127-30) My invention relates to spray-dried sugar mixvalue of this syrup should be raised to a value tures and more particularly to a process of staof about 6 to 7. A ran whi I have found bilizing the sugar mixture prior to drying to incommercially advantageous is about 6.4 pH to hi bit inversion of the sugar and thereby maintain 6.6 pH. This pH adjustment may be obtained by 5 the reducing sugars content of the final product adding to the syrup any suitable alkaline subsubstantially constant. stance such as sodium or potassium hydroxide or The product of this invention comprises gencarbonate. If, contrary to the usual case, the erally a spray-dried mixture of sucrose and starch initial pH of the syrup is above the desired range conversion syrup in which the latter is usually \I of 6 to 7, an acid or acidic substance such as for 10 present in amajor proportion. Also, the product example mi er l acids. would used for the 10 is relatively non-hygroscopic and is dehydrated neutralization. After the syrup is neutralized it to a low moisture content of not more than about should, in the usual case, be filtered to remove im- 3%. The tendency toward inversion of the supurities and substances that are coagulated at the crose in this product with corresponding increase adjusted pH value.

in total reducing sugars content, is minimized so The adjustment of pH of the starch conversion 15 that the product is substantially stable against syrup or mixture of the syrup and sucrose has a inversion during processing and use. very marked effect upon the inversion properties A difliculty commonly encountered in the comas shown by the following. If the commercial mercial production of mixed sugar productsconglucose of usual 4.5 to 5.5 pH is combined with taining sucrose, is that the sucrose undergoes subsucrose and the product dried, inversion of the stantial inversion into the reducing sugars dexsucrose to an extent of about 15% to 20% will trose and laevulose and this causes undesired take place- H w v if the D i iil t0 8 properties in the final product; This inversion value of about 6 to '7 in accordance with my inmay take place in the process of preparation of vention the inversion is reduced to an almost the mixed product and also during subsequent negligible amount, such as 1% to2%. 25 use where the sucrose is dissolved, particularly The starch conversion syrup may be obtained when accompanied by heat. by conventional conversion treatment of starch The amount of inversion that takes place varies or starch and protein mixtures obtained from generally with the amount of starch conversion various starchy materials such as corn, wheat,

syrup present and is affected particularly by the rice, potatoes, beans and peas. The conversion 30 impurities in the syrup. Likewise the conditions may be eifected by means of acid or enzymes or to which the mixed product is subjected aflfect the combinations thereof. In the usual case the amount or extent of inversion. If inversion is starchy material substantially freed of fiber, oil substantial the final dried product will tend to be and proteins will be subjected to the action of hygroscopic and therefore unstable on exposure. acids under heat and pressure. According to the Moreover, when the inverted product is used in well known procedure, the starch is converted various confections it will produce undesired soft into a liquor or syrup containing a mixture of and sticky products. 1 the reducing sugars, dextrose and maltose, and

.I have found that the impurities, salts and acids the lesser converted materials principally dexin the starch conversion syrup is one of the printrins. One well known commercial form of this 10 cipal causes of the inversion of the sucrose and conversion syrup is corn syrup or commercial that by neutralizing the syrup to a proper pH glucose, havingareducing sugars content of about value before the mixture is dried, the inverting 40-42%. action of these constituents is buffered and the The sugar or sucrose which is to be incorporated adverse effects thereof avoided. Neutralization with the starch conversion syrup is in the form.

of the starch conversion syrup may be carried of a dry, water soluble crystalline solid. The preout before the syrup is mixed with the sucrose dominant example of this crystalline sugar is cane or the mixture of syrup and sucrose may be new sugar but the sugar obtained from sugar beets tralized before drying. may be used as well. The term sucrose" has been The pH value of starch conversion syrup such used in a generic sense in the specification andas, for example, corn syrup or commercial glucose, claims herein to include cane sugar, beet sugar is normally about 4.5 to 5.5. Preferably it is kept and any equivalent form of sugars. as low as possible to minimize discoloration of the a The following more specific, .but non-limiting syrup in transit and storage. For purposes of my description will provide a clearer understanding invention, however, I have found that the pH of my invention.

In this instance the starch conversion syrup used is that obtained in the conversion of corn starch with acid, heat and pressure treatment in conventional manner until a syrup of approxi- 5 mately 30 Baum is produced. This syrup is bleached and normally conducted to the evaporating pans for final concentration. This corn syrup is now adjusted in accordance with my invention to a pH value of 6 to '7. Next, the sucrose 10 in an amount usually less than that of the corn syrup and preferably in-an amount of about onethird the weight of the final product, is added to,-the hot conversion syrup and quickly dissolved. The mixture of conversion syrup and liquid sucrose is now treated with bleaching carbon or bone char and filtered to remove foreign matter and impurities. The resulting filtered liquor is concentrated or diluted as desired to make it suitable for the spray drying operation. Usually the amount of solids in the liquid mixture for spray drying is about 50% by weight but this may vary appreciably.

The spray drying treatment may be carried out according to any suitable known manner. For example, the heated mixture of corn syrup and sucrose, described above, may be atomized through a spray nozzle and sprayed into a desiccating chamber containing heated gases to dry the atomized particle. Preferably toward the bottom of the desiccator there is introduced a flow of cold dehumidified air to lower the tem perature of the spray dried material to a point (less than about 100 F.) where it may be bagged without danger of caking. The spray dried material is advantageously dehydrated by this treat ment to the point where it will contain not more than about 3% moisture and preferably less than 3%.

An alternate procedure to that described above 40' would be to use a corn starch conversion liquor which had been converted at about a 24 Baum starch suspension, neutralized to a pH value of 3.5 to 4.5% and filtered with filter aid to remove the coagulated proteins. Next, the filtered ma 45 terial is bleached with carbon or other bleaching agent and the pH adjusted to a value of about 6.4

to 6.6. The Baum of the starch suspension at this stage would be about To this pH adjusted'suspension about 25% by weight of crys- 50 talline sucrose is added and the resulting liquid is filtered if necessary to remove foreign matter and then spray dried as described above. A commercially advantageous feature of this process is that bleaching of the heavy conversion liquor is 55 eliminated. The dissolved sugar in this instance would raise the concentration of the mixture satisfactorily for spray drying.

The products obtained from either of the above described methods would be free-flowing, powdery types of materials having little or no color and being readily soluble in water. This product could be used in many instances in place of sucrose and because of the constituents in the solidified starch conversion syrup, particularly the dextrins, the product would offer advantages over sucrose in certain uses such as in the bakery, confectionery and ice-cream field.

Various modifications and changes may be made in the above described materials and procedures without departing from the scope of my invention, some of the novel features of which are defined in the appended claims.

I claim: 7

1. A process of producing a free flowing, noncaking solidified starch conversion syrup-sucrose product containing a substantial amount of sucrose but being stable against inversion, comprising treating the liquid starch conversion syrup to give it an accurate pH value of about 6 to '7 so as to buffer the sucrose inverting action of the acids, salts and impurities contained in the syrup, blending the syrup with the sucrose to provide an intimate mixture thereof and spray drying said mixture for producing a stable dried product which because of its substantial freedom from inversion products has high resistance to caking.

2. A process of producing a free flowing, noncaking solidified starch conversion syrup-sucrose product containing a substantial amount of sucrose and a greater amount of conversion syrup but being stable against inversion, comprising treating the liquid starch conversion syrup to give it an accurate pH value of about 6.4 to 6.6 so as to buffer the sucrose inverting action of the acids, salts and impurities contained in the syrup, blending the syrup with the sucrose to provide an intimate mixture thereof and spray drying said mixture for producing a stable dried product which because of its substantial freedom from inversion products has high resistance to caking.

3. A process of producing a free flowing, noncaking solidified starch conversion syrup-sucrose product containing a substantial amount of sucrose but not more than about one third of the weight of the final product and being stable against inversion, comprising treating corn syrup with a neutralizing substance to give the syrup an inversion resistant pH value of about 6 to '7 and to coagulate impurities and undesired substances, treating the syrup to remove the coagulated substances, blending the treated syrup and the sucrose to provide an intimate mixture thereof and spray drying said mixture to produce a stable dried product which because of its substantial freedom from inversion products has high resistance to caking.

4. A process of producing a free flowing, noncaking solidified starch conversion syrup-sucrose product containing about one fourth sucrose and three fourths conversion syrup and being stable against inversion, comprising treating corn syrup with a neutralizing substance to give the syrup an inversion resistant pH value of about 6 to 7 and to coagulate impurities and undesired substances, adding decolorizing carbon to bleach the syrup, filtering to remove the coagulated substances, blending the treated syrup and the sucrose to provide an intimate mixture thereof and spray drying said mixture to produce a stable dried product which because of its substantial freedom from inversion products has high resistance to caking.

5. A stable, spray dried, free flowing solidified starch conversion syrup-sucrose product resulting from the treatment specified in claim 1 and containing not more than about 2% of sucrose inversion substances, said product being substantially resistant to caking and comprising discrete particles of combined sucrose and solidified syrup.

JAMES F. WALSH. 

